18th matchday: double pack filling jug: Werder ended Wolfsburg’s winning streak

18th matchday
Double pack filling jug: Werder ended Wolfsburg’s winning streak

Werder’s Niclas Füllkrug (r) scores a penalty to make it 1-0. photo

© Carmen Jaspersen/dpa

He is Werder’s life insurance and greatest investment at the same time: Niclas Füllkrug scored both goals in the 2-1 win against Wolfsburg and then wiped away all transfer rumors.

Niclas Füllkrug really didn’t look like someone set to play for another club next week.

Werder Bremen’s top scorer celebrated the surprising 2-1 (1-0) win over VfL Wolfsburg in the midst of his colleagues. He always spoke in the “we” form when it came to the unexpected end of the Bremen defeat series. An hour after this game, he wiped at least 95 percent of all transfer speculation from the past few weeks off the table.

“There are still three days. I don’t think anything will happen now,” said the national striker with a view to the change period ending on Tuesday. Füllkrug admitted for the first time that he had received inquiries from other clubs after the World Cup during the winter break. But: “Everything that came up was rejected by me in the first instance. I didn’t let Werder get it.”

It was also possible to see why the 29-year-old had risen from being a substitute in the second division to becoming one of the most sought-after players in the Bundesliga in just a year and a half. Füllkrug scored his 12th and 13th goals of the season against Wolfsburg. In the 24th minute he converted a controversial hand penalty. In the 77th minute he scored from close range after a clever discard by Mitchell Weiser. Kevin Paredes made it 1:2 in the 90th minute and was therefore too late.

Füllkrug life insurance and investment at the same time

For Werder, the filling mug is a sporting life insurance policy and the greatest investment at the same time. That’s what makes his situation so piquant. Before the convincing performance in this northern duel, the promoted team had lost four times in a row. The lead on the relegation place melted down to five points. In such a phase, you normally don’t sell your most important and promising player.

On the other hand, the people of Bremen have just come through the Corona crisis and a year in the second division. You could use the proceeds from a million-dollar sale. That’s why the sporting management left a back door open for his change in the past few weeks and also left Füllkrug on Saturday after the Wolfsburg game.

Werder Bremen is “a commercial enterprise,” said the striker. “If a club has so much need of a man that he puts down a sum that you can’t say no to, then a club like Werder just has to do it.” He just doesn’t count anymore this winter. However, there are many indications that things will look different in the summer after this season.

Wolfsburg missed club record

The win against Wolfsburg was an enormously important step in ensuring that Bremen will still be a first division team. “That was a great game from us,” said full-back Weiser. And that was just a few days after a desolate 1: 7 in Cologne and a bitter 1: 2 against Union Berlin “not to be taken for granted. That speaks for our team.” And that is also very important for the next games, including against the relegation rivals VfB Stuttgart and VfL Bochum. “A lot depends on confidence in this league,” said Weiser.

Opponents Wolfsburg had previously won six games in a row with a goal difference of 22:1. Even a draw in Bremen would have meant setting a club record from the championship year 2009, when VfL under Felix Magath went eleven consecutive Bundesliga games unbeaten. But the energy and relentlessness that had recently distinguished Niko Kovac’s team was shown this time above all by Bremen. “I’m very proud,” said Füllkrug. It was still too early to say goodbye.

dpa

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